FDA Is Cleaning Up Antibacterial Soap

On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it will ban nineteen ingredients from being marketed in soap products.(Photo: Shutterstock)

Washing your hands with soap is still a very, very, very good thing...just not with soap that includes certain ingredients, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). On Friday, the FDA announced that companies will no longer be able to market over-the-counter (OTC) consumer antiseptic wash products that contain any of the following 19 easy-to-pronounce ingredients:

In case you want to read something that is very long with a lot of words, here's the full document explaining the final FDA rule.

Now, you may be thinking that you have never used "undecoylium" or "triclosan" brand soap and instead use soap that has the words "flowers", "essence", "fruit", "spring" or something evoking images of people running in fields of flowers. However, these ingredients have become increasingly common in household products, not just soap but also toothpaste, shaving cream, antiperspirant/deodorant, mouthwash, after-shave, hand cream, conditioner, food odor products, and baby pacifiers (no clear word yet on whether they are in adult pacifiers). In fact, a study in Environmental Health Perspectivesfound triclosan in 74.6% of people's urine samples. If the word "antibacterial" or "antiseptic" appears anywhere on a product package, there's a good chance one of these nineteen ingredients is lurking somewhere. Such words suggest that some ingredient is present that is supposed to actively kill (or at least making very, very sleepy) bacteria and other microbes.

Why is the FDA banning these nineteen ingredients from OTC consumer antiseptic wash products...usually referred to as soap? (Rarely do you say, "excuse me...do you have some OTC consumer antiseptic wash product that I can use.") First, there is concern that these substances can encourage the growth of antibiotic resistant bacteria...otherwise known as superbugs. Basically, the ingredients may kill off bacteria that would normally be susceptible to antibiotics but not the antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This leaves an open field for the resistant bacteria to multiply, take over, and cause trouble...sort of like the words "kewl" and "yolo". In essence, using too many antibacterial products can actually promote the spread of bigger, badder bacteria and lead to life-threatening infections (#yolo).

Here's the label for a bottle of antibacterial soap that contains the active ingredient triclosan, which is now banned from consumer over-the-counter wash products. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Now these studies did not get mice and rats to wash their hands with triclosan. (That would require very small soap dispensers.) Instead scientists gave the animals triclosan in other ways such as by mouth..something you usually would not do with liquid soap unless you are in certain fraternities (although triclosan is in some brands of toothpaste.) Moreover, findings in other animal studies do not necessarily hold for humans. For instance, a systematic review published in Environment Internationalfound “sufficient” evidence in animals but “inadequate” evidence in humans of "an association between triclosan exposure and thyroxine concentrations." The authors concluded that "triclosan is 'possibly toxic' to reproductive and developmental health." There have been other health concerns about triclosan such as the possibility that it can lead to or worsen allergies.

Furthermore, each of the other eighteen ingredients brings its own set of potential issues. For example, triclocarban, which is frequently found in bar soaps (but not bar conversations) also may affect sex hormones with possible links to prostate cancer and breast cancer but so far only in non-human animals. Moreover, many of the nineteen ingredients have been appearing in increasing concentrations in different parts of the environment such as the soil and lakes (no, earthworms and ducks are not using antibacterial bar soap), raising concerns that they are becoming pollutants.